Finalising details of Electoral Bonds for political funding: Arun Jaitley

Arun Jaitley, who was Law Minister in the A.B. Vajpayee government, said at that time they had prepared a system under which if someone pays through cheque from his account he would be entitled to that much of tax rebate.

By

IANS

|

Updated

:

1 September 2017,

8:58 pm

The scheme requires that every political party should have one bank account and the donor donates money in that account," Arun Jaitley said.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said the government was finalising details of the ‘Electoral Bonds’ scheme which will improve transparency in political funding as money will be completely clean.

Delivering a memorial lecture here, he said, “On the question of political funding the entire apparatus has failed. Law says something, what happens is something else.”

Jaitley, who was Law Minister in the A.B. Vajpayee government, said at that time they had prepared a system under which if someone pays through cheque from his account he would be entitled to that much of tax rebate.

But even now not many people are part of that system because they are afraid that if they pay in cheque their names would be revealed.

“Therefore I announced ‘Electoral Bonds’ in this year’s Budget which can only be purchased through banking instruments, through RBI. The scheme requires that every political party should have one bank account and the donor donates money in that account,” Jaitley said.

“We have announced the scheme already and now we are trying to finalise it. Because under the current system, neither is there any clean money, nor transparency. In this alternative system, some transparency will be improved, but the money will be completely clean,” he added.